Samburu Laikipia Northern Kenya - more info

Day 1: Nairobi

Arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Received by NICE driver guide, who will assist you to get to your hotel. We shall need your flight details to enable us plan and manage time better.

Depending on your arrival time there are a number of places that are worth paying a visit. If you are a wildlife enthusiast, then, the animal orphanage, the sheldrick foundation, the giraffe center, the mamba village, the snake park and the Nairobi arboretum among others.

Community excursions enthusiast, can try the Kibera slums, you can also visit the Maasai community trapped by the city expansion and are struggling to survive the tough urban conditions and also ensuring that their livestock survive too.

There a number of old homes for the elderly and also the Hiv/aids infected, all of which deserve your visit and also assistance.

It is also possible for you to relax in your hotel and manage the jet lag by the swimming pool etc.

Day 2- 3: Laikipia – Maasai/Yaaku cultural excursions

You will be picked from the lobby of your hotel at 9 am and you will depart to Laikipia, Nanyuki on the base on mt Kenya.

You will be driving northwards and skirting mt Kenya on the western edge until you arrive on the laikipia plateau.

You will notice pineapple, tea, coffee and maize(corn) plantation. The Kenyan agricultural communities such as the Kikuyu, kamba and kirinyaga will be ecnountererd on your way.

Lunch at the Tree trout. After lunch you will depart to Dol dol, and straight to the Yaaku village.

The yaaku is a community belonging to the major cushitic language group – they speak yaakunte, and is listed by the UNESCO as an extinct language.

The community number about 5000 persons only of which 10 elderly people can speak their language. This community has been increasingly assimilated by the maasai and the western culture influence. However, They are a hunter-gather community living on the edge of the Mukogogo forest and struggling to make sure that their language, traditional livelihood and occupation such as wild fruit gathering, bee keeping etc.

You will spend the night here in a tent and the yaaku nature guides will help you count the stars thro the night!

The other activities are traditional dances with warriors, site seeing, nature walks, forest adventure, cultural excursions.

Days 4- 6: Il ngwesi community a section of the wider Laikipia Maasai

You will drive eastwards through passing parts of the Mukogodo forest and descending to the floor/base of the east part of Rift valley, where you will meet the Il ngwesi community who for a decade, have managed to conserve their own wild life sanctuary.

The community lodge has won several awards on responsible tourism including the much coveted equator award.

You will have lunch at the community lodge and spend a night. An evening game drive has been planned for you and a bush dinner, alongside the Maasai warriors who will perform traditional dances and activities. There is also a possibility for you to spend a night at the nearby maasai villages.

The next morning, you will leave the lodge at 6.00 am to the world-renowned lewa conservancy. Where you will spend the whole day and have lunch at the prestigious lewa safari camp. There is a possibility for you to have poolside lunch and you can have a swim – to manage the scorching African sun. You will get back to the lodge at 4pm. Lewa conservancy is home to the endangered species such as the black rhino, the Grevy Zebra, among others

The next day, you will have camel trekking and nature walks and lunch at the Tassia community lodge.

Day 7- 9: Northern frontiers

samburu nomads and Samburu game reserve.
Exprince the samburu culture and their environment led by local samburu women as guides.

You leave for samburu via Isiolo, where you will spend a night at the umoja women tented camp, on the edge of Ewuaso river, a place called archers post in samburu.

The Umoja samburu women will take care of you. They have traditional dances, a cultural museum, a school and they will be glad to show you all this. It is a fully women managed camp. They will explain and give you stories on the successes, gains and tribulations of a Samburu woman. What do they think of polygamy, women battering, gender role, decision making processes within the households and the community at large.

You will visit the traditional samburu villages and see the traditional dances and cultural activities.

The second day in samburu will be spend on a whole day game drive on the magnificent samburu game reserve, which is home to diverse wild life population.

The third day in samburu will exclusively be for cultural excursions, site seeing and nature walks around the lolokwe and the Matthews ranges among others and over night on a make shift .

Day 10: Nairobi

Long drive to Nairobi, via Isiolo and Nanyuki and catching on an evening flight to EntebbeUganda.